Dire Means

A ruthless vigilante ends homelessness using terror to force brotherly love. He imposes a horrific fate on those who don't display flagrant kindness toward the less fortunate. This taut thriller brings you page after page of nail-biting tension laced with moral quandaries. More

Can love be extorted? An ingenious vigilante launches a bizarre mission to end homelessness in the coveted beach-side city of Santa Monica. Randomly-chosen citizens mysteriously disappear after they are secretly videotaped ignoring or exhibiting cruelty to the homeless. Days later, their corpses show up in the streets, bearing a message. The vigilante's demand is clear: Be kind to the homeless or risk the same horrifying fate. With law enforcement stymied, Santa Monica becomes a virtual armed encampment. Citizens engage in flagrant displays of public kindness as the only way to feel safe outside their homes. Businesses join in, using storefront window signs to flaunt perks for the homeless and avoid being targeted. Mark Denny, a computer technician, is lured and then trapped in the vigilante's scheme to maintain the public's fear-fueled generosity. Matching technological wits is the only way he can end the city's terror, but it could cost his life.

This taut thriller brings you page after page of nail-biting tension laced with moral quandaries.

Geoffrey Neil, his beautiful wife and talkative son live in Los Angeles with a useless, ungrateful fish that Geoffrey threatens at least once daily. Writing novels has proven to be a grueling process for Geoffrey, but he can't break the obsession even though he tries to prioritize sleep, TV and people over keyboards. His books provide a satisfying scare with very little blood, a tactic many readers find equally assaulting on the senses. Geoffrey's overactive imagination and genuine fear of almost everything are tools that help him write novels, but also get him wound tighter than an eight-day clock. His wife calls him the mayor of Stress Town. Go try one of his books. It will make the poor guy feel better ... and that could save a pathetic fish.

Also by This Author

Reviews

Review by:
PalinaD
on Oct. 08, 2011 :
Downloaded this book a while back and only recently discovered that it was a great find. I got the Kindle version and finished it in about 4 days. It contains great descriptions and narrative throughout a very original story that accelerates as you go along with a good deal of tension woven in. There’s a satisfying technical side to this book, with use of phones, cameras, GPS all without isolating readers who are not tech savvy. I will say that after chapter 2, I've decided that I’ll never ride a freight elevator again! Good character development and several nice twists too.
The story also presents a social message about the impoverished that will make you think and really sticks with you after you finish. I’m recommending Dire Means to friends and bookmarking Neil’s page because I’m now anxious to see his next work.
(reviewed long after purchase)

Review by:
Kelli Harborough
on Aug. 18, 2010 :
OMG I was so sad when this story ended!!! What an incredible, unexpected escape it was! At first I thought it would be a tad depressing for me, but then the story got exciting, scary. The plot is filled with poignant realities that make you think about the so-called underclass in a whole new way.

This is a serious page-turner and I will recommend it to every one of my bookworm friends. The only other thing I have to say is I’ll be disappointed if Geoffrey Neil doesn’t follow up with another book to continue this story.
(reviewed the day of purchase)

“We will never have peace in the world until men everywhere recognize that ends are not cut off from means, because the means represent the ideal in the making, and the end in process, and ultimately you can’t reach good ends through evil means, because the means represent the seed and the end represents the tree.”----Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

I found this book through a friend on line; it seems that stores generally don’t carry it. It is a story about one man and his organization who decides that he will end homelessness once and for all.

Now Spare Change News is a paper that deals with homeless issues so I felt duty-bound to read and report on this book which, unfortunately, has not received much press. To be honest, I wasn’t looking forward to it. I thought I would be slogging through a 300+ page book but, like I said, because it dealt directly with homelessness, I felt I could not ignore it.

Was I in for a surprise!! Before I had read ten pages I was gripped with the desire to find out what happens next. Then, even after I was hooked, the intensity began to build and I found myself totally engaged with the lead character, a 28 year old computer techie named Mark Denny, and the situation into which he found himself thrust.

You know the expression, “No good deed goes unpunished.” Well, it certainly begins to apply here and by page 36 Mr. Denny finds himself knee-deep in a world of shit. Little does he or the reader, know that upcoming twists and turns, will find Mark Denny a public figure, heroic in scope, his position constantly shifting.

If you have never been homeless, you must read this book because you will, through the author’s skill, find yourself identifying with what it is like to be homeless. If you have been, or are homeless, you should read this book because you will find yourself saying, “Yeah, I’ve been there; I know what this feels like.”

Well done, Geoffrey Neil, well done.

As I said earlier, I thought this book would be a chore to report on. How wrong I was! I found myself gripped by the tension and flipping from page to page. I literally couldn’t put the book down.

It was a weekend and my wife, as understanding as she is, said to me, “Well, are you going to spend the weekend with the book or me?” in more ways than just verbally. But I was hooked.

From the moment that, for selfish reasons, Mark Denny decides to help two scam artists harassing drivers for “gas money” and finds himself in a predicament that would give PTSD to anyone to the moment, soon after, where he is attempting to rescue a “homeless” man from a certain suicide because he really wants to be a good guy, the story whips into the fury of a hurricane.

The story takes place in Santa Monica, California. People are disappearing at the rate of one a day. We’re talking business executives, rich housewives, arrogant teen-agers, average middle-class citizens, not homeless people at all.

Then, days later, they start to reappear, dead, with camera footage from digital cams hung around their necks showing them abusing, either verbally or physically, homeless folks. Cause of death—starvation and thirst.

Santa Monica goes into panic mode. All of a sudden no one wants to abuse, through neglect or otherwise, homeless people or people who appear down on their luck.

Because of his selfless act on the roof, saving a “homeless” man from suicide, Mark Denny’s hero status brings him into contact with the very people who are “disappearing” the abusers. And he finds that, somehow, someway, he is the only person who can bring the horrific means these people use to end homelessness to a halt. If he can survive.

It is amazing how quickly one can go from hero status to fugitive status. Mark Denny finds himself brought into this organization which operates with technological expertise, lethal manipulation, and is a trusted information disposal company which, by its very nature, escapes suspicion and is held in extremely high regard by the business community.

Imagine having access to financial information, medical information, family history, etc. and using this knowledge to alter society for “altruistic means.” Dire Means.

Mark Denny, the hero, the computer expert, the homeless sympathizer, is brought into this organization and, little by little, the doors are closing behind him, and, before he knows it, there is no way out.

I could say more but why would I want to? This is a book that must be read. I guarantee you will be turning pages and ignoring everyone around you.

What’s the difference between a homeless person and yourself? One wrong corner turned, a hurricane, a mugging or an information specialist with a Taser.
(reviewed within a week of purchase)

Review by:
Margaret Corry
on Aug. 01, 2010 :
Dire Means was an absolutely fantastic read for me. Well written, original, thought provoking and hard to put down. I'm from L.A. so I also enjoyed some familiarity with the settings that were depicted beautifully and accurately.
The story seemed to end with a nice setup for a sequel. I hope so.
(reviewed within a week of purchase)